Tambon Kamphuan Community Learning Center
Suksamran District, Ranong Province, Thailand
The mission of the Tambon Kamphuan Community Learning Center is to help coastal communities of
Southern Thailand increase economic opportunity, achieve greater resilience to natural disaster , and improve the natural environment. Towards that end, we maintain an innovative, exciting, and comfortable environment for learning, experiential education, meetings, and cultural events. The Center offers community outreach, training services, meeting space, and involvement opportunities for all members of the community. The Center welcomes and creates connections among entrepreneurs, local authorities, educational groups, non-profits organizations, and visitors. We realize our mission by providing learning opportunities, facilitating meetings, and offering training and advocacy in microenterprise development, natural resource management, and community-based disaster preparedness.
Objectives
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Provide training outreach services
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Support local Micro-Finance Institutions and Revolving Funds
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Demonstrate locally appropriate and environmentally sound technologies
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Promote sustainable small enterprise technical training
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Background
The Tambon Kamphuan Community Learning Center was created under a partnership between the USAID funded Post-Tsunami Sustainable Coastal Livelihoods Program and the Coca-Cola company to provide a holistic approach to community development Kamphuan, Ranong. This approach, balances economic and environmental development and provides outreach services to local communities, NGOs and government agencies at all levels in Thailand. The Center has developed widely-accepted, practical educational programs in Community Based Disaster Management, Revolving Fund Microfinance Institution, Recycling and Solid Waste Management and Agriculture and Aquaculture technical outreach. The Center continues to expand and provide support to these activities.
The Tambon Kamphuan Community Learning Center
Provides Training in:
Community Based Disaster Management
Recycling and Solid Waste Management
Micro Enterprise Development
Revolving Funds– Micro Finance Institution
Solid Waste Management and Recycling
To improve environmental quality and reduce public health risks, the Center provides community outreach programs to educate local com-munities about recycling and solid waste management. Programs fo-cus on the importance of reducing volume in the waste stream and providing technical skill that encourage small business opportunities in waste recycling and reuse.
The Center also encourages integration between local communities and government agencies to address the growing problem of safe sanitary disposal of municipal waste.
Topics Include:
Household Separation of recyclable materials
Effective Micro-Organism
Solid Waste Markets
Integrated Waste Disposal Systems Villagers making EM organic fertilizer
OUTREACH PROGRAMS
Community Based Disaster Management
The Center offers education programs in Community-Based Disaster Management to groups at the local, Provincial and National Level. These programs provide a comprehensive overview of Disaster Prevention, Mitigation and Response to natural and man-made disasters. Thru practical skill-development exercises, participants are lead thru training that prepare them for the challenges of the changing world.
Topics Include:
Participatory Risk Assessment (PRA) and Mapping– Using a PRA tool, participant rank risks in a spatial and geographic context.
Disaster Risk Mitigation– High ranking risks are then address and mitigation methods are developed
Disaster Response Planning– A committee structure is developed to conduct mitigation activities and pro-duce disaster management plans.
Disaster Management– Committees are assigned tasks that provide the needed assistance to the community in the event of a disaster
First Aid, First Responder Training– Technical training that provides committees with the needed skills to carry out their tasks.
A women’s group produces bead jewelry to provide additional income to their households
Micro Enterprise and Agriculture/Aquaculture Extension
The Center provides technical training in a number of small-scale businesses, hand-crafts, agriculture and aquaculture ventures. The Center focuses on providing training to women's groups to increase household income. Integrated agriculture is a proven means of providing alternative income while protecting the natural environment. The Center offers visits to local people who are engaged in the following activities:
Integrated Aquaculture-
Using Muskogee Duck, Tilapia and vegetables has successfully provided alternative income and reduced household food costs and improve nutrition.
Catfish Hatchery Management-
Catfish grow-out is a common, environmentally sustainable practice that helps people generate income for people around Thailand. To expand this the Center provide training in artificial breeding of catfish to pro-vide people with the skills to produce their own seed fish
Bead Jewelry Production-
Groups have found that producing bead jewelry is a simple, enjoyable way to expand household income in their spare time.
Muslim Head Scarf Production
The Center Can provide visits to local occupational groups producing Muslim head-scarves to local and international markets.
Integrated Organic Duck Fish Vegetable Farming
Micro-Finance Institution and
Revolving Fund Management
The Center provides skills training to Revolving Fund groups in accounting and revolving fund management to assist groups of the region. The Center also provides training in the process of developing Revolving Funds into Cooperative Credit Unions.
Topics Include:
Accounting and Management By-Laws
Credit Union Development
Facilities
The Center is located in a 500 square meter, two-story building adjacent to the central market of Suksamran Sub-District. Situated on riverfront property donated by the Tambon Administrative Of-fice the Center offers a five element fitness trail and recreation activities.
The building itself was designed to serves as a model for environmentally conscious architecture. This ‘Green Building’ approach incorporates solar panels to reduce power consumption, a constructed wetland to purify septic system water and an energy minimiz-ing design into a disaster resistant construction.
Catering Services-The Center employs local service providers that can cater meals and coffee breaks compliant with Islamic rules.
Conference Room-
With the capacity or meeting of up to 30 participants this comfortable meeting space has full audio-video and public-address systems.
Computer Room-
Ten PC-based computers workstations with high-speed internet connections are ready for the use of program participants
Tsunami Museum–
